News Roundup

July 15, 2006

Disney has a promotional web site for “Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest” which uses Google Earth. The Google Earth file does very little but put up a custom photoshopped map of fictional islands from the movie and link you back to their web site for sound clips, movie clips, and pictures. The islands look just like normal aerial photos in Google Earth. However, they put the map in the Bahamas, not the heart of the Caribbean. But, its still fun. via OgleEarth.

Another Tour de France live tracker is available called RouteFocus Live. This one only works if you have the latest GE 4 BETA and Windows. It requires you to install an application which runs in a separate window. I prefer the network link approach which works on all platforms and doesn’t require installing an application.

‘Gerardo64′ has posted instructions on how to make your own GeoRSS newsfeed for Google Earth . This uses a service from GeoNames.org which georeferences an RSS feed by examining the content for key locations (e.g. if “Chicago” is mentioned most it would tie the story to the coordinates for Chicago) . Here is an example of an RSS feed for top stories on Tour de France from Google News. This is similar to the network link by Daden Consulting called NewsGlobe written about at GEB last fall. via OgleEarth.

Palestinian villages that existed before the 1948 war were mapped for Google Earth and posted in February by a Palestinian at the Google Earth Community a few months ago. Recently a Jewish online news source wrote a suprisingly moderate story about the thread. See the map for yourself, and read the comments in the post thread. Thanks to Frank McVey for the tip.

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was released. He worked in 3D graphics for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank left in 2009 to circumnavigate the earth by sailboat as part of the Tahina Expedition.

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Comments

“However, they put the map in the Bahamas, not the heart of the Caribbean. But, its still fun. via OgleEarth”
They put it in the Bahamas because that is where the movie was shot and also if you read a history book on piracy you would find the Bahamas is the undisputed center or worldwide piracy.

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